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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28027989">i just want warmth when nights are cold</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/pinuspinea/pseuds/pinuspinea'>pinuspinea</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>La Barbe bleue | Bluebeard - Charles Perrault</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Bad BDSM Etiquette, Blood Drinking, Blood and Gore, Curiosity, F/M, Fairy Tale Elements, Ghosts, Horror, Knifeplay, Loss of Innocence, Loss of Virginity, Marriage, Menstrual Sex, Naive Girl, Older Man/Younger Woman, Porn With Plot, Rough Sex, Serial Killers, Smut, Spanking, Temptation</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-12-12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-10 22:56:00</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Explicit</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>7</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>21,504</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28027989</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/pinuspinea/pseuds/pinuspinea</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Mr. Marcel Modrovous sweeps Alice off her feet, and they marry. But there are ghosts that lurk in the darkness of his house, and the one door that is forbidden to her keeps haunting her dreams.</p>
<p>Alice, sweet and innocent Alice, gets consumed by it all.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>La Barbe bleue | Bluebeard/La dernière femme de la Barbe bleue | Bluebeard's Last Wife</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>13</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. One</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Me coming up with this fic idea: Forgive me, father, for I have sinned.<br/>Me writing this fic: I'm sorry daddy I've been naughty uwu</p>
<p>(Also did I name Bluebeard Marcel and his wife Alice just so that their shipname could be Malice? Yes, yes I did.)</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>As the youngest daughter in the family, Alice grows up knowing more about the world than her mother would perhaps like her to know. Her three elder sisters are all many years older than her, and as such, they leave home when she is still a young child, but they keep writing letters to little Alice who dutifully answers them.</p>
<p>Marie, the eldest, marries a sensible scrivener who keeps his wife in a nice house in the town. The man is well to do, and they soon have three children of their own. Rose, the second eldest, finds a suitable spouse in a nice merchant, and they also live happily together with their four young ones. Anne, the second youngest and Alice's dearest sister, marries when Alice is twelve. Her husband is a kind man with a fun smile, and he makes shoes for all those people in the city that can afford to pay for them.</p>
<p>When Alice is thirteen, her father passes away. She and her mother keep their small country house well enough stocked, but it is difficult without any additional help. Marie and Rose visit with their husbands every now and then, but their lives at the city are so busy that they cannot spend as much time to help their elderly mother as would be needed.</p>
<p>Dutiful Alice helps her ailing mother, but most of their help comes from Anne who comes with her husband to visit every week, and eventually, they talk to her mother and tell her that it is much more sensible to leave their countryside house and move to the city and live in the attic of Anne and her husband's house.</p>
<p>Alice leaves their home in tears when she is fourteen, and she helps her sister with the baby and the housekeeping while missing the golden fields and the peace and quiet of the countryside that is nowhere to be heard in the hustle and bustle of the city.</p>
<hr/>
<p>When Alice is seventeen, her mother passes away. The funeral is a solemn affair, and they all are very quiet, but afterwards, her sisters sit her down in the kitchen of Anne's house and look at her with serious eyes.</p>
<p>"You should find a husband of your own, Alice," they tell her. "You cannot spend all your life simply as a maid in our houses. You should have your own house. We want you to be happy, Alice."</p>
<p>Alice nods solemnly and wipes her tears and knows that her sisters all mean well, that they all want her to simply find someone good for her, but she cannot help but to feel a sharp stab of pain at the thought of them trying to push her into adulthood so soon after she has lost both of her parents, so soon after the passing of their mother.</p>
<p>Marie helps to get Alice some clothes more suitable for a young woman instead of a child, and she teaches Alice how to act in polite society. Rose, the belle of their family, teaches Alice how to dance and entertain people, and she guides Alice in her music lessons. But Anne, the most dutiful of the three sisters, looks at Alice and gives her lessons that are far more valuable than the lessons she learns from both Marie and Rose.</p>
<p>"You mustn't forget what you truly want in life, Alice," Anne reminds her. "You must find a man who can give what you want, but do not let material possessions dazzle you. You must stay humble and be good and dutiful, and good things will come to you."</p>
<p>Alice nods and remembers that lesson carefully.</p>
<hr/>
<p>The city is a big place. Every time Alice attends tea parties or goes to the theatre or the ballet, there are always new people to meet. She remains her gracious self and listens to conversation, and her sisters keep an eye on her during those nights and make certain that she does not get hurt by anyone.</p>
<p>One night at the theatre she bumps into someone.</p>
<p>"Oh, I'm so sorry!" she says as she turns around, and then she stares at the man who is looking back at her in surprise. His hair and beard seem almost blue in these lights, but as he moves, the illusion disappears and Alice sees that his hair and beard are simply very, very dark.</p>
<p>"There was no harm," the man says.</p>
<p>They end up talking about the show, about many of the other shows Alice has seen, and the man listens to Alice as she enthuses about the new ballet that will have its premiere in just a few weeks. She is sad that she will have to wait longer to see it, as the tickets have already been sold out.</p>
<p>"I have room in my box," the man says. Alice blinks in surprise, and then she searches for Rose and her husband who she came to the theatre with. They meet her eyes and make their way across the rush of people, and then they smile at the man Alice has been conversing with.</p>
<p>After they have introduced everyone to one another, he extends the same invitation to both Rose and her husband, who eagerly take it.</p>
<p>Alice studies the man and wonders what he wants from her, not as blinded by the dazzle of a premiere as her sister is.</p>
<hr/>
<p>After that meeting, they come across each other almost constantly. When Alice goes with Marie to a walk in the park, he is there, sitting on a park bench and seemingly enjoying the good weather. Alice introduces him to Marie, and Mr Modrovous is all elegant speech patterns and charm around her sister. When Alice joins Rose in society events, he is also in attendance, and Rose always seems delighted when he comes to speak to the two of them, but Alice still hesitates.</p>
<p>Eventually, he comes to buy shoes in Anne's husband's shop and meets the last of her sisters. Anne is all smiles and politeness when they talk, but once Mr Modrovous has left the store, her sister turns around, puts a closed sign onto the shop window, and then looks at Alice seriously.</p>
<p>"He seems interested in you," Anne says with worry in her voice. Her eyes are searching Alice's face. "Do you care for him?"</p>
<p>Alice is quiet for a long moment as she thinks about the way how conversations with him seem to bounce from one topic to another as if there was nothing restraining them. He makes her feel at ease, but at the same time, something in him is slightly wrong. Sometimes, when Alice looks at him, she thinks she sees cruelty in his eyes, and she doesn't know where it stems from. Sometimes, when the light is just right, his beard and hair look horribly blue and his eyes shine with malice, but those are only short moments.</p>
<p>"He is kind," Alice says, uncertain of what else she could say. Anne looks at her for a moment longer, and then her sister sighs.</p>
<p>"We'll just take it one day at a time, then," Anne decides.</p>
<p>That they do, and the days pass until it is time for the premiere. Alice is decked out in borrowed clothes and she feels so adult as she sits in a private box in a pretty dress and looks at the stage, but she cannot help but feel like she glances at the man sitting next to her more often than she glances at the dancers. His eyes are spying her skin all the time, but every time she glances at him, his gaze rests on the stage.</p>
<p>Alice tries to push that feeling aside, and when the performance is over, they go for a late dinner.</p>
<p>He is all smiles and politeness to Alice, and he barely pays any attention to Rose and her husband.</p>
<hr/>
<p>One Saturday, when the shop of Anne and her brother-in-law is closed, there is a knock on the door. Alice looks curiously at the other two who seem just as clueless as she is, and then she gets up from her sewing and goes to the door.</p>
<p>Mr Modrovous smiles at her as she opens the door.</p>
<p>"I apologise for my unannounced visitation," he says in his smooth way of speaking. "May I come in?"</p>
<p>Alice lets him in, and she closes the door to the living room just a little so that they can have at least some privacy in the hall. Mr Modrovous looks at her seriously, and then he takes her hands.</p>
<p>His proposal does not come as a surprise, but Alice still struggles to find the words. The longer she struggles, the harder he seems to be staring at her.</p>
<p>Her brother-in-law steps out of the living room and stops in surprise to see Alice's hands resting in Mr Modrovous's. She quickly pulls them away.</p>
<p>"Oh, my apologies," her brother-in-law says but does not seem sorry at all.</p>
<p>"I need to speak with my sisters before I can give you an answer," Alice tells Mr Modrovous. His face seems frozen for a moment, but then he smiles.</p>
<p>"Of course, dear Alice," he says, picks her hand, and kisses her knuckles.</p>
<p>Mr Modrovous leaves. Alice is left in the hall with her brother-in-law, and soon enough, Anne joins them as well.</p>
<p>"He proposed to you, didn't he?" Anne says. Alice can only nod.</p>
<p>"I'll go tell Rose and Marie the news," her brother-in-law says.</p>
<p>Rose and Marie are ecstatic at the news of proposal. Everyone in the city knows how rich a man Mr Modrovous is, though he does not live in the city full time. They know about his beautiful country estate and a house that is so large that one needs a big, heavy, old-time keyring to hold all the keys to the rooms of the house. Rose and Marie talk almost endlessly about how wonderful Alice's life will be when she marries him, how many dresses she will have and how he will provide anything she wants for her, but Anne is more reasonable.</p>
<p>"We all know that he can provide for Alice, but the question is whether marrying him is the right choice," Anne says. Rose and Marie look stunned.</p>
<p>"Why wouldn't he be the best possible husband for Alice?" Rose asks. "He has been such a dear during all those theatre performances, after all, and he's never said a bad word about Alice."</p>
<p>"Exactly!" Marie exclaims. "He has been such a charming gentleman, and not once have I heard anything bad said about him."</p>
<p>Alice follows the conversations her sisters have over her head, but Anne looks at her.</p>
<p>"Alice?" she prompts. Alice swallows and thinks for a moment.</p>
<p>"He would make a good husband, wouldn't he?" Alice says uncertainly.</p>
<p>Marie and Rose enthusiastically agree, and they agree so loudly that eventually those exclamations drown all the doubts Alice has.</p>
<p>They talk to her about how Mr Modrovous would make a fine husband, how he would take care of her, how she could go back to the countryside she has missed so dearly during her years in the city, and slowly, Alice forgets all about those times that she was left to wonder, when she hesitated, when something in him was not right.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Two</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>He arranges a wedding like no one has seen before. He seems comfortable in taking the reins, and he listens to Alice's hesitant requests and adjusts the plan to suit her wishes. Something in the way he speaks to the staff at their rented venue seems oddly like he has had these conversations before. Something about the way he arranges for a seamstress to come to visit Alice makes it seem like he has asked another seamstress before to do the same.</p>
<p>Alice wonders, but she does not ask, too confused by the wedding preparations that her sisters delight in. Marie and Rose are quick to give advice, but Anne is quieter, more reserved. She does seem happy for Alice, but at the same time, they both know that once Alice and Mr Modrovous have been wed, she will be moving away from the city to live in his country estate.</p>
<p>It is not a distance that will be covered in just a short trip. Alice knows that once she is married, she will see her sisters much less than she does now, but she is still too dizzy with the thought of a wedding to think about that too hard.</p>
<p>He donates her enough money for a wedding dress, saying that his bride should have only the best. Alice is thankful for the gift, and the dress she buys with the money makes her feel more beautiful than Rose. Her sisters smile brightly when they see the way she adores herself in the mirror, and they speak to her in low voices and tell her of married life, of secrets to a successful partnership they have not spoken of before. Alice listens to them and wonders how her married life will turn out to be, and she wonders if her fiancé knows how her sisters gossip about their husbands, and she wonders if she'll ever feel comfortable enough to gossip about him.</p>
<p>Their wedding day comes quicker than Alice expected, and one morning, her sisters help her get dressed and hug her tightly. Alice makes a beautiful bride, and when she enters the church at his side and walks down the aisle with him, her head feels so strange. She looks at him and recites the wedding vows, and he does not even look at the priest once, having eyes only for her.</p>
<p>He speaks the wedding vows with strange comfort, reciting them with certainty that seems strange to Alice who recited her own with such nervousness, but she has no time to think about it as he pulls her into the husk and busk of a wedding party.</p>
<p>That night, Alice cries when she hugs her sisters and tells them her goodbyes, and they cry as well, and her brothers-in-law kiss her cheek and wish her good luck and shake the hand of her husband and welcome him amongst their group.</p>
<p>Alice dozes off during the carriage ride to his country estate. The night is dark, and the moon is full when the carriage finally stops, and they are there. He helps her down the rickety steps and her hand is sweaty in his. Alice feels suddenly shy in his presence.</p>
<p>He is no longer just Mr Modrovous, but her husband Marcel as well.</p>
<p>His hair and skin are blue in the moonlight as he takes her hand and pulls her with him towards the house. Alice follows him, still a little too tired to even think about it properly, and the house looms over them until it covers the moon and they step into the shadow. It feels even darker there, until they finally reach the door.</p>
<p>He pulls a heavy ring of keys out of his pocket and lets her in, and then the door slams shut behind them, and they are in complete blackness.</p>
<p>"Stay here," she feels a murmur against her ear, and she shivers a little. She hears his steps going away, and she touches the door behind her back, and she tries her best not to panic, but it is so hard to not do so. She wonders where he disappears into, she wonders if she'll find him somewhere, but she does not hear his footsteps anymore.</p>
<p>The hall is so deadly silent, and Alice feels so alone, and she nearly screams as she feels something touching her arm.</p>
<p>Light flickers on and she looks up at him.</p>
<p>"You scared me," she says, her breath coming in with labour. He smiles at her, and his eyes are so very dark in this light. Alice looks down at his throat and the beard that seems almost blue again, and she feels like her head is splitting open.</p>
<p>The day has been so very long, so long that she hadn't even realised it, but now that she is there, she is full of nervous energy. Her sisters have talked to her about what her first night as a married woman will most likely be like, and they whispered to her about the way their own husbands caress them, how they kiss them.</p>
<p>Alice looks at Marcel Modrovous and wonders what his kisses will feel like, whether that beard will scratch her skin, but she does not get to experience it quite yet. He takes her hand and pulls her deeper into the house, and Alice follows him obediently. She will be lost without him in this strange and large house of his, but for now, his hand is in hers and he is guiding her upstairs and into the labyrinth that ends in a pair of doors.</p>
<p>"These will be your rooms," he tells her, and then he looks at her. They are there, and Alice looks at him and wonders whether he'll be joining her in these rooms.</p>
<p>"Good night, my wife," he murmurs and lays the candle he has been holding onto a small table next to the doors of her rooms, and then he finally leans over and kisses her for the first time.</p>
<p>His beard is not scratchy, Alice notes during the short kiss. He does not do anything else than kiss her, and even that kiss is so oddly short that it leaves her a little confused. But he smiles at her and then he takes her hand and kisses her knuckles, and his lips touch that elaborate ring he put onto her finger earlier today in the church, and he leaves her and the light and disappears into the darkness.</p>
<p>He knows this house well enough that Alice does not hear any sounds of crashing, but it is still odd how comfortable he seems to be leaving the only light with Alice. She gathers her breath for a moment longer, and then she finally straightens out her back and opens the double doors into her rooms.</p>
<p>The first thing she notices is how beautiful the wallpaper is, and then she notices what lovely details he has added into her room. There is an ornamental dressing table, something Alice mentioned only in a passing sentence to have longed after, and the bed has soft curtains and even softer sheets.</p>
<p>Alice clumsily undresses and leaves her dress resting on the chair by the bed, and then she slips underneath the thick blankets with a content sigh. The bed is almost as soft as a cloud.</p>
<p>The candle flickers behind her closed eyelids, but Alice does not blow the flame away. Something in this house makes her afraid of the dark and her skin shiver, and even though she worries about the fire spreading, it's easier to fall asleep like that.</p>
<hr/>
<p>She wakes up late in the morning and stretches, and then she gets out of bed and straightens out the sheets herself and looks at the rooms again. There is a large wardrobe waiting for her, and the doors open to reveal dresses in all colours of the rainbow. Alice stares at them for a moment, and then, with great hesitation, she chooses one that seems to be simple enough for a morning alone with her husband.</p>
<p>Alice brushes out her hair at her new dressing table and sprinkles some rosewater onto her skin, and then she looks at the rings in a bowl on the table. A closet full of beautiful dresses, a dresser full of jewellery. He seems to have prepared the house for her, and she curiously tries on the different rings and looks at the jewellery box to see it filled to the brim.</p>
<p>Eventually, she leaves the room behind after deciding that she doesn't need any pretty things to meet her new husband. Alice steps outside the doors of her room, and then she looks around and tries to remember which way was downstairs.</p>
<p>She's not too successful. Alice ends up wandering around upstairs for a good while, trying different doors that do not open and some that do before she finds the staircase, and she gets down and looks around in the foyer. The house is beautiful, that cannot be denied, but rather dusty and seems almost unlived in.</p>
<p>Alice wonders whether her husband has hired staff to take care of his house yet or whether that will be her duty, but she doesn't get to wonder for long.</p>
<p>"Alice," she hears from behind her, and she quickly turns around and looks at her new husband in relief.</p>
<p>"Thank goodness you're here," she says happily enough and walks over to him. He seems to be searching her face with a face that seems far too serious when Alice takes his arm and meets his eyes with a smile. "I would have been hopelessly lost had you not showed up. I already got lost upstairs."</p>
<p>He is quiet as he starts guiding her across the house. Alice tries to remember the twists and turns, and it is a little easier in daylight rather than in the blatant dark they arrived in. The morning sun makes the house much more approachable even though that does not make any of the hundreds of rooms disappear.</p>
<p>Their silence is comfortable as he shows her into the dining room with a table that has already been set for two. He pulls her chair for her, and then they sit together in that long table, her on his right side, and she pours tea for her. He is studying her and not taking breakfast onto his own plate. Alice wonders if he is not hungry, but she doesn't ask.</p>
<p>"How many doors are there in this house?" she asks curiously while spreading marmalade onto her bread.</p>
<p>"A thousand and one," he says. Alice looks up in surprise.</p>
<p>"Oh, I didn't realise the house was quite that big," she says and then glances out of the windows onto the vast estate and the gentle gardens that surround the house. "There must be many servants here."</p>
<p>"Enough to keep the house running," he states. Alice looks at him curiously, but she does not push the matter.</p>
<p>He does not eat breakfast with her. Instead, he watches while she eats, and it feels somewhat uncomfortable. For a moment, Alice is confused by the intensity of his stare, but then she thinks about what didn't happen last night and she looks down at her plate with a slight blush rising to her cheeks.</p>
<p>She completely forgets to think about whether she has ever seen him eat.</p>
<p>"Can you show me around?" she asks shyly, still wondering when she'll be pulled into his rooms and his bed. Their rooms are most likely close to one another. He must have chosen her rooms to not be too far away from the master of the house's.</p>
<p>He nods and starts the tour.</p>
<p>He walks the rooms and opens the doors with his chain of keys, and he leaves each key into the lock it opens. Alice is shown all those rooms that have their furniture covered in white sheets of linen, and he pulls them away and reveals antiques that must be worth as much as the house itself. Alice looks at the beautiful paintings that have darkened and yellow with age, and she looks at old grandfather clocks that have stopped ticking. He tells her of the house in words that make it seem more like a museum than a home, but Alice decides that she will make this house feel warm and welcoming to him.</p>
<p>The curtains are drawn open. Light floods in, and all around her Alice sees beauty. They walk through endless parlours, studies, libraries, nooks and crannies, alcoves intimate enough that it makes Alice blush from the power of her thoughts, and eventually, they have toured everything in the house but the basement.</p>
<p>Alice holds onto his hand as they walk the winding hallways underneath the house. Here, he yet again leaves the keys in the keyholes even though he shows her valuable bottles of wine and all kinds of curiosities that have been forgotten underneath the house.</p>
<p>Eventually, they come to a doorway that he does not open. He looks at it, and Alice looks at the door that looms at the end of the corridor, and she shivers as her eyes turn towards him.</p>
<p>"This is a room where you shall never go," he tells her. Alice looks at him, then she looks at the door.</p>
<p>Something about the door makes her feel uneasy. Something about it seems to pull darkness into it, and Alice cannot help but shiver. She knows she is acting silly; she knows that doors cannot be evil, but something about this one makes her feel like the corridor around her is just that tiny bit colder than its surrounding parts.</p>
<p>Alice shivers, and she doesn't know why that is.</p>
<p>He takes her hands and puts the final key into it. Her hands close around the heavy brass key, and he looks at her eyes with utmost seriousness.</p>
<p>"You must promise that you will never look into this room," he says.</p>
<p>Alice promises.</p>
<hr/>
<p>They return to where Alice began her morning, to the rooms that he has given to her, and the keyring and key rest heavy in her pocket.</p>
<p>"You are now the mistress of this house and responsible for all its keys and doors," he tells her at the entrance to her rooms. Alice nods seriously, and then she thinks about it for a moment.</p>
<p>Slowly, she takes the key from her own door and offers it to him. His eyes twinkle as he accepts it. He slips the key so easily into his own pocket, and as it disappears, he steps closer to her. His height makes him loom over her. Alice's legs take her against the wall, and then he is already kissing her.</p>
<p>This is not like the modest kiss he pressed to her lips yesterday, but this is an all-consuming kiss that Alice knows will not let her go until she has given him all he wants. Her hands grasp his hair and they run down his face, and they do not tangle in his smooth and well-kept beard. He caresses her and holds her in his arms, and Alice feels excitement and nervousness competing with one another inside of herself.</p>
<p>She looks at Marcel Modrovous, and she feels like she is drowning in his eyes. He leans over her and presses a kiss onto her lips, and she is drowning in him again as he pushes the door next to them open. His hands pull her into the room with him, and they never break the kiss. She stumbles blindly across the floor until her knees hit the side of the bed, and then his weight easily pushes her over.</p>
<p>Alice looks at him with her eyes big and crawls away from him on the bed, but he is quick to lean over her and to kiss her neck. His hands feel for her body, and Alice is thrown by the way he caresses her, the certainty and power of his hands. He easily grasps her wrists and pulls them to touch the headboard, and then he looks at Alice with his dark eyes.</p>
<p>"Hold onto it," he tells her, and it is not like some polite request made at a dinner party. Alice shivers and she wraps her fingers around the decorative woodcarvings of the headboard, and she looks at him as he lazily studies her form.</p>
<p>His hands are less hurried now as they caress her body. Alice holds onto the headboard with all her might as he slowly undresses her and studies her.</p>
<p>He pulls a knife from his pocket and that makes Alice's eyes widen even more.</p>
<p>"Do you trust me, dear Alice?" he asks in a dark, sultry voice.</p>
<p>Alice hesitates, but then she nods slowly.</p>
<p>He no longer gives her clothes any care. Instead, he slides the cold blade of the knife against her skin and tears the fabric open. Alice shivers underneath the knife and holds her breath as it comes closer to her neck and her face, and she searches his face for confirmation. He slices the sleeves of the top as well, and then he pulls those torn pieces of fabric from her body and throws them across the room.</p>
<p>"Such a good girl you are," he murmurs. "Such an obedient little wife."</p>
<p>Alice squeezes the headboard so tight that her fingers hurt as he slides his hand up her leg, and behind that hand follows the same blade that tears through her stockings and then rests against the curve of her knee.</p>
<p>He bends over to kiss her, and Alice remains very still. He is still fully clothed, but she has had most of her clothes removed from her skin and there is no sign of him stopping now.</p>
<p>He pulls her skirts off without bothering to slice them, and then she is bare in front of him. Alice breathes heavily as his eyes take in all the tiniest curves of her body, and his hand follows his eyes, and the knife blade slides across her skin and leaves behind goose bumps. His kisses are lazy as he runs them down the side of her face and then her neck, and the sudden bite makes Alice jump a little and yelp, and the knife nicks her skin just enough that a drop of blood collects on it.</p>
<p>He looks her straight in the eye, and then he presses his mouth on that tiny pinprick and sucks the blood from her skin, and Alice squirms a little again.</p>
<p>He puts the knife down. Alice dares to breathe a little more freely, but his hands again reach for her wrists and check that they have not left the headboard.</p>
<p>"Do not move," he warns her as he manoeuvres Alice onto her stomach. She freezes a little as she feels his hands running down her back onto the roundness of her rump, and then they dive between her legs. A soft noise leaves her mouth as his fingers curl, and she holds onto the headboard with his head bent over her neck, his breath running down her spine.</p>
<p>He plays her like an instrument, and Alice holds on to dear life as his fingers twist and grope devilishly as if he was trying to make her move, but Alice closes her eyes and bites her teeth together even when her toes curl a little.</p>
<p>Then, his hand disappears. Alice lets out a small whine.</p>
<p>"Marcel?" she asks, her head heavy with something she has never felt before. He chuckles right behind her, and she can feel his other hand pressing onto her waist.</p>
<p>"Just a moment, dear Alice," he says and kisses her neck lazily. Alice twists her head a little and tries to see what he is doing, but before she has the chance, he catches her lips in a kiss.</p>
<p>His mouth drowns out the noise she makes when he slides himself inside her, and she nearly breaks her hand by squeezing the headboard so tightly.</p>
<p>He does not give her any mercy. He pushes her body tightly against the sinfully soft mattress, and Alice has no option but to lie underneath him and take what he gives to her.</p>
<p>He shivers as he stills, and he breathes heavily as his teeth clamp around her throat and she cries out in pain and pleasure.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Three</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The house is large and has many nooks and rooms to explore, but Alice decides to start her tour outside. She soon finds the beautiful flower gardens, the orchards with trees old and curled up, and then she finds the maze.</p>
<p>From outside, it does not look that large. Alice still hesitates at the entry point as she looks at the tall hedges, and she thinks about how easy it would be to get es. How long would it take to find her way out again? How long would she wander around, completely lost and slightly scared?</p>
<p>No, she does not step into the maze that day, but she does think about it. She looks at the maze, and she wonders, but she returns to the house like a dutiful wife and meets her husband in the dining room.</p>
<p>Alice hesitates at the door before she steps in, and again, he pulls her a chair. He watches while she eats, and Alice stares at her meal. Her appetite is all gone.</p>
<p>"You're not too sore, are you?" he asks. Alice glances up at him and the empty plate in front of him. He has wine in his glass, but he has only taken three sips throughout this meal.</p>
<p>Alice counted.</p>
<p>"My arms are just tired," she says slowly. He stands, and before Alice can get another word in, his hands are already rubbing her tense shoulders.</p>
<p>She sits there and stares at the lamb on her plate, and she has lost all appetite. His hand rub at her aching shoulders, and they do feel good, but his hands very carefully avoid the spot where he bit through her skin and left behind an ache and his teeth, still indented into her skin.</p>
<p>He seems calm. Alice wishes she could be just as calm as he now is, but her stomach is still rolling, and she feels dizzy.</p>
<p>He left her lying in the bed afterwards, and when he came back, he meticulously cleaned all of Alice's wounds and kissed each of them, and then he kissed her so softly that it felt dizzying compared to the way he kissed her just moments earlier.</p>
<p>Alice is still struggling to understand who the man she married is, and she wishes she had not been as swept away by wedding planning as she was.</p>
<p>They were engaged for such a fleeting time, and now they are married, and there is nothing to separate them anymore. Alice bites her lip.</p>
<p>"What are you thinking of?" he asks curiously after a long moment of silence. His hands are quick to find the kinks in her muscles and they help to relieve the ache in them from squeezing the headboard so tight, and Alice is yet again faced with the memory of his breath down her neck and the moment when she wondered whether she should run away from him, screaming like mad.</p>
<p>"This morning," she says quietly. He rubs her back and then he starts to ease the tension in her neck. His thumbs have surprising strength in them.</p>
<p>Alice shivers. His hands wrap slowly around their neck, and the backrub ends. Alice waits what he will do, but he simply presses a kiss on the side of her neck.</p>
<p>"You were such a good girl, Alice," Marcel whispers and sounds pleased. "Such a good wife I have."</p>
<p>Alice wonders if he'll expect her to be as good always, and she shivers involuntarily.</p>
<hr/>
<p>His mansion is in the middle of the countryside. Alice gets to wonder all she wants on the sides of the fields, and she gets to enjoy silence instead of listening to the rush of the city. She has missed this peace and languidness, but at the same time, she misses her sisters horribly. She misses Marie and the tea parties she attended with her, and she misses Rose and the dinners and evenings she spent with her second eldest sister. But most of them she misses Anne, who listened to all her musings when they had their breakfast together, and she misses Anne's husband Thomas.</p>
<p>Her own marriage has had a rocky start, and Alice truly doesn't know what to think about it. Marcel seems content to leave her alone for most of the days, but at nights he walks her to the doors of her rooms, and there he always kisses her.</p>
<p>He has the key to her rooms. He comes there almost every night, and Alice does not know what she should think about the way he undresses her, how he makes her keep her hands to herself, how he orders her and praises her and how she always shivers underneath his hands.</p>
<p>She is so confused, and she misses her sisters. If they were here, she could at least talk with them and ask what they think about this all. If they were here, Alice could maybe ask if they left something out of their descriptions of what they do with their husbands, but her sisters aren't here. No, they are in the city, many hours away from this country estate, and Alice misses them dearly.</p>
<p>Her exploration of the gardens is over, and this morning she begins her exploration of the house. Every room she enters, she looks carefully around. She studies the paintings on the walls, the beautiful antique furniture, and slowly, she collects the keys back into the keyring that he gave to her.</p>
<p>Alice runs across him in the foyer, and she looks at him in surprise. He is dressed in clothes that speak of him leaving the house, and he has a heavy chest with him.</p>
<p>"I must leave you for a while, my dear Alice," he says and takes her hands to kiss them. "But I will be back sooner than you think. Take good care of the keys while I am gone, Alice."</p>
<p>She looks at his hands, and she squeezes them softly.</p>
<p>"I'll miss you," she says shyly. "When will you be back?"</p>
<p>He caresses her cheek and then he kisses her.</p>
<p>"Sooner than you think," he says against her lips, and then he walks out of the house with that heavy chest of his. Alice watches from the window as the carriage pulls away from the house and leaves behind a large cloud of dust, and then she sighs.</p>
<p>Already the house feels too big without another occupant in there. The servants he has in the house certainly know how to not be seen, as during that first month of marriage Alice has not seen them once. She has thought that perhaps they will come out of their hiding place eventually, but no one has walked across her in the hallways.</p>
<p>The house sometimes feels haunted, but Alice usually pushes that thought aside and focuses on something that will not bother her as much.</p>
<hr/>
<p>While her husband is gone, Alice wanders the rooms of the house and locks them behind her one at a time. The keyring starts to fill out, and it feels heavy. The weight of it on her hip does make her feel more secure. With each room that has been closed, there is less of a chance to get lost. Each room that she locks behind her also means one less hiding place for anyone else in the house.</p>
<p>Alice thinks it will mean that she will soon run into the servants, but she never does. No matter how many keys she adds to her ring, there are never any servants in the rooms she enters.</p>
<p>They must have keys of their own, Alice thinks uneasily, and she locks the final rooms upstairs that she does not want to get lost into.</p>
<p>The keyring is heavy enough that it cannot be allowed to fall into her pocket freely. Alice slips it inside, but in the bottom of her pocket, she feels something.</p>
<p>The brass key she pulls out is no different than any of the others, but Alice immediately remembers which door it belongs into. She shivers involuntarily as she glances down the steps, and like she was bewitched, she starts walking towards the cellar.</p>
<p>She has dreamed about the door; she knows it now. She has dreamed about the door ever since he showed it to her and told her never to open it, but she has simply not remembered the dreams, not until that key was back in her hand.</p>
<p>The door is there, at the end of the corridor in the basement, and it looms unlike any other door in the house. Alice stares at it, and she sways on her feet and she closes her eyes.</p>
<p>She walks to it like she was in a dream, and she presses her cheek against it and closes her eyes. The wood is unnaturally cool underneath her cheek, almost as cold as ice, and she remains there, locked in place.</p>
<p>Something moves behind her. She does not even have time to turn around when a familiar weight already pushes her tightly against the door.</p>
<p>"There you are," Marcel's voice growls in her ear. "I was looking for my good little wife."</p>
<p>His hands are already gathering her skirts onto her waist, and with a couple of quick moves he has pushed himself deep inside of her. A gasp escapes Alice's mouth at the suddenness, and he caresses her roughly, his hands hounding her body and not letting her even greet him.</p>
<p>She shivers as he pushes her tightly against the door, and her face squeezes against the woodgrain as he fucks her roughly and without any preparation, and she feels so dizzy at the suddenness of it all that she thinks that she hears something on the other side of the door.</p>
<p>It does not take her long to moan in pleasure, and he runs an unforgiving pace that makes them both gasp and moan until they are both spent against that door.</p>
<p>He gently pulls himself out of her, and Alice shivers a little at the pat he lays on her rump.</p>
<p>"Hello, darling Alice," he whispers playfully into her ear before finally letting her turn around. There is no sign of that passion or hurriedness on his face as he smiles before kissing her. Alice is out of breath and she leans heavily against the door, her hair a mess and her clothes rumpled. Slowly, her skirts fall to her ankles again even though the evidence of his passion remains sliding down her thighs.</p>
<p>"Marcel," she says and doesn't know if she still has any common sense left in her. "Hello."</p>
<p>Her lips curve into an intoxicated smile. He chuckles as he puts his fingers underneath her chin and kisses her chastely as if he just didn't have her against that door.</p>
<p>"Has my wife been good or naughty?" Marcel asks. Alice blinks for a few times, and then she remembers how he warned her never to look inside that room.</p>
<p>Alice shows him the key in her hand and expects him to take it, but he simply looks at it and then closes her fist tightly against the brass key.</p>
<p>"Keep it safe," he murmurs. "I trust you that much."</p>
<p>Alice nods and allows him to pull her away from the door.</p>
<p>Upstairs, dinner has been set yet again for two. He pulls her chair for her and they sit close to one another, and he languidly sips on his wine as Alice enjoys her evening meal, her cheeks still flushed and her breath not yet completely under control. He seems amused to see how her hands shake and how she shivers involuntarily as she glances at him every now and then, but he does not say anything at all.</p>
<p>Eventually, Alice's mind starts to find other things to think about than the way his hot breath pressed against her neck.</p>
<p>"How was your trip?" she asks her husband. Marcel looks at her with his glinting eyes.</p>
<p>"Very productive," he says, and for a moment Alice could swear that his beard and hair are bright blue, so blue that it is shocking. But when she looks at him again, the illusion fades, and she must acknowledge that the image she saw was just some mirage. Now that she looks at him, he is the regular man she is used to seeing.</p>
<p>He has been gone for such a brief time, yet Alice still wonders how far he made it. She does not know where he went or why exactly he had to leave, but she guesses it's better not to ask. Something in it makes her wary, something in the way that he held her against the door has made her worried again.</p>
<p>Alice thought she could forget all about what happened during the first few weeks of their marriage, but all the doubts she thought she had buried come running back into her head. Alice picks at her food, and eventually, she must push it away. He frowns as he looks at her.</p>
<p>"Is something wrong?" he asks her. Alice bites her lip as she looks at him, and she wonders whether it is smart to say anything. Eventually she decides it's better to just say something before she goes mad from how confused she is.</p>
<p>"Why do you do that?" she asks in a terribly small voice. "Why do you enjoy taking me like that?"</p>
<p>He looks at his glass of wine and is silent for a long moment as he mulls on the matter. Alice waits for him to speak, and she wonders if he'll be honest and open with her about this. She hopes that he will be, but she can never be too sure. He can simply just tell her a lie and he can just as easily not answer this question of hers.</p>
<p>Never before has Alice brought up the matters he does to her body, but now she wants to understand what he thinks about when he pushes and pulls and holds her on knife's edge.</p>
<p>"My preferences are somewhat darker, that cannot be denied," he says. Alice bites her lip.</p>
<p>"Has it always been like that?" she asks slowly and tries to gauge whether he is telling the truth to her. He most definitely is a hard man to read, that is for sure. His face is rather impassive even now, as if this was a regular conversation. The blush has not left Alice's cheeks for a long while, and she doubts that it will fade while they are talking about this matter.</p>
<p>"As long as I can remember," he eventually says and looks at her with careful eyes. "But have you enjoyed it?"</p>
<p>Alice is flustered by the question. She squirms a little on her chair and takes a big gulp of wine to calm her nerves, and he chuckles as he sees it.</p>
<p>"It hasn't been... completely unpleasant," Alice says carefully. He bends his neck.</p>
<p>"But something has been," he deduces. Alice bites her lip.</p>
<p>"I wish you told me beforehand what you wanted to do," she admits to him in a small voice. "I think I could perhaps prepare a little better, in that way."</p>
<p>He raises an eyebrow at her.</p>
<p>"You have seemed to enjoy not knowing, as well," he notes lazily and takes another sip of wine. Alice shivers a little underneath his dark gaze.</p>
<p>"I just worry," she admits.</p>
<p>"Worry about what?" he asks and gets up. It's only two steps that he must take to reach her. Alice looks up at him and she feels so tiny as he stares down at her. His hand rests on her shoulder so easily. Alice's head feels so very empty now, but she shakes her head and pushes herself to remember just what she was thinking about moments earlier.</p>
<p>"I never know what you are thinking about," she says and looks at him. He bends his head a little. It makes her swallow. "I guess I'm just stewing in my thoughts a little too much."</p>
<p>He hums and studies her for a moment longer. Alice wants to move away from his gaze, but she doesn't do that.</p>
<p>"Perhaps you should talk with your sisters," he notes easily enough. Alice freezes. "You're not used to being so alone, are you?"</p>
<p>She shakes her head mutely.</p>
<p>That night, she writes a letter to her sisters and asks all of them to come to visit.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Four</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The answers arrive in a bunched-up package. Alice reads everything her sisters write her about, and she has not even realised how thirsty she is for news about them as she allows the letters to pull her deep into themselves. Marie tells her of the mischief her eldest has gotten into again, and she tells her about her husband being horribly busy with a writing job which means that he cannot leave the city for a good while. Rose writes to her about a new fashion spreading in the city and the long hours her husband has to pull just to answer the demand of his customers, and she writes that she is horribly sorry but she cannot leave her husband in the middle of the busiest weeks he has had in many long months. But Anne, her dearest sister Anne writes to her and says that she and Thomas will visit.</p>
<p>That evening at dinner Alice cheerfully tells the news to her husband, and he nods politely and asks a few questions as Alice animatedly tells him everything her sisters told her about their lives in the city.</p>
<p>He takes her to her bedroom and sits down on the bed with her, and she feels horribly shy as he looks at her with those intense eyes.</p>
<p>"May I tie you?" he asks, and she shivers.</p>
<p>"How?" she asks, her eyes wide as they follow the path of his gaze to the posters of the bed. He gets up and picks a few beautiful silk belts from the wardrobe, and then he sits down with her.</p>
<p>"Like this," he murmurs and shows her the simple knot around her wrist. Alice looks at it and tries it gently. The harder she pulls, the more it strains against her wrist, but she also sees the way she needs to twist her wrist to get it free. It wouldn't be a challenge to free herself if he tied her up.</p>
<p>Hesitantly, she nods, and he smiles darkly as he kisses her and the ties her wrist to the bed and takes his time playing with her body, and Alice squeezes the silk and gasps and breathes hard and hums in delight to feel his fingers exploring her so freely.</p>
<hr/>
<p>Anne and Thomas arrive that next weekend. Alice is waiting for them on the stairs to the main door, and when the carriage draws into the yard, she bounds to open the carriage door.</p>
<p>Anne gives her a tight hug and it feels like an age since she last saw her sister, and Thomas smiles as he looks at her.</p>
<p>"Mrs Modrovous, you look radiating," he teases her, and Alice laughs in delight when she hears herself getting called that for the first time.</p>
<p>It takes a while to tour the rooms of the house she wants to show them, and Anne and Thomas are clearly confused by the extent of his house. Alice, having lived there for almost two months by now, is not confused by the doors. She handily picks the right key from the ring and leaves them in the keyholes all the while Anne and Thomas gawk at the riches her husband keeps in all those rooms.</p>
<p>"This place is enormous," Anne says with solemn respect. "There must be a thousand doors in this house."</p>
<p>"A thousand and one," Alice says and thinks about the only one she will never be allowed to open.</p>
<p>Marcel is somewhere in the depths of the house, but he has promised to come and sit with them for a picnic in the garden. Alice can already see the blanket that has been set by the maze, and as she happily guides her sister and brother-in-law towards there, Marcel steps out of the maze.</p>
<p>"My darling little wife," he murmurs with a smile and kisses Alice chastely on the lips, and Alice still blushes, thinking that Anne will chastise her for such unseemly behaviour, but Anne simply looks amused.</p>
<p>During the picnic, Marcel rests an arm over Alice's shoulders, and eventually she gets pulled against his body. There are fine delicacies served for them, but Marcel simply sips on his dark wine and leaves the food for them to enjoy. Alice, who has already gotten used to this during their time as a married couple, barely pays it any mind, but she sees the nervous way her sister and her brother-in-law keep glancing at Marcel's empty plate.</p>
<p>The picnic is a success. Eventually, Anne and Thomas are guided into the guestroom to have a bit of a rest before the evening arrives, and Alice sits down contently in her own rooms onto a small loveseat with Marcel by her side, his hand resting on her thigh.</p>
<p>"You seem happy to have them here," he says. Alice smiles brightly.</p>
<p>"I've missed them," she says and then leans her head on his shoulder. His eyes hold that dark lust for her that they so often do, and his fingers linger. Alice bites her lip.</p>
<p>"What is wrong, dear Alice?" he asks in a husky voice. Alice breathes slowly.</p>
<p>"I can't lay with you today," she answers slowly. He raises an eyebrow as he looks at her.</p>
<p>"And why is that?" he asks with an insistent hand rubbing her thigh, already straining towards the place where her legs meet one another. Alice shivers a little. Before she can say anything, he is already pulling her skirts up.</p>
<p>Her hands go to stop his, but he simply shakes his head.</p>
<p>"A little blood is not enough to stop me," he murmurs as he presses kisses against the thin skin on the inseam of her legs, and Alice shivers from a completely different reason.</p>
<p>His head presses tightly against her core and Alice bites her teeth together and tries to stay quiet as he licks and nibbles and tortures her with his tongue, and she loses herself on the feeling of his beard scratching against her.</p>
<p>Eventually, after she begs for mercy in breathless whispers, he pulls away. His beard is tinted red, and his lips look devilishly dark. Alice feels like he has managed to completely undo her in that time, and she shivers as he neatly puts her skirts back in order and pats her knee.</p>
<p>"You'll be a good girl and keep this a secret, won't you, dear Alice?" he asks with mischief colouring his voice. Alice nods a few times, but then she simply lies there bonelessly.</p>
<p>He eventually gets up and goes to get refreshed, and eventually, Alice forces herself to do the same. By the time she is choosing a dress, he has slipped back into her rooms.</p>
<p>"How about this one?" he suggests as he pulls a blood-red dress out of her wardrobe. Alice shivers a little as she touches the sinfully soft silk. His lips are playing with the few curls that have escaped to rest down her neck. "You look so beautiful in red."</p>
<p>She blushes more violently than she has ever blushed, and he chuckles as he helps to put the dress on her.</p>
<p>During the dinner, she sits next to him in a bloodred dress and tries to not think about the way he kneeled between her legs, and she fails horribly.</p>
<hr/>
<p>Anne and Thomas can only stay that weekend. Their own child is waiting for them in the city, but before they leave, Anne pulls Alice aside.</p>
<p>"We're having another child," Anne whispers. Alice clasps her hand over her mouth in excitement. "We want you to be the godmother."</p>
<p>"I would be honoured," she whispers back and hugs her sister. Anne hugs her back tightly.</p>
<p>"Don't tell anyone quite yet," Anne says with her eyes twinkling bright. "I still want to surprise Rose and Marie."</p>
<p>Alice nods enthusiastically, and when her sister and her brother-in-law are about to leave, she hugs Thomas much to his and Marcel's surprise.</p>
<p>As their carriage pulls towards the turn in the road, Marcel lays a hand down her arm. Alice looks up at him.</p>
<p>"You're hiding a secret from me," he murmurs. Alice swallows and glances towards the carriage, but it has already disappeared.</p>
<p>"It's not my secret to tell, but Anne's," she says seriously. Marcel raises an eyebrow as he looks at her.</p>
<p>"Are we not husband and wife?" he asks slowly, the words stretching like a cat before it leaps on its innocent victim. "Did we not promise to keep nothing from each other?"</p>
<p>Alice nods miserably as she looks at his shirt.</p>
<p>"I don't want to betray Anne's trust," she murmurs and looks up at him. "Is it enough to tell you that you'll find out soon enough?"</p>
<p>He shakes his head. Alice bites her lip.</p>
<p>"It's nothing bad."</p>
<p>"Alice."</p>
<p>She has never heard him say her name quite like that before. Never before has he sounded quite as harsh or looked at her with such darkness remaining in his eyes. Alice swallows thickly as his hand sneaks its way around her waist.</p>
<p>"Will you tell me, or do I have to spank it out of you?" he asks in his dark voice. Alice looks up at him, and without even recognising it, her breathing comes a little faster. He sees the way a slight blush rises to her cheeks, and then he is already pulling her inside with him.</p>
<p>The door bangs closed with a heavy thud as he sits down on the stairs and pulls her into his lap. Alice has barely any time to think as he already gathers her skirts over her head, and then his hands are already kneading her bottom.</p>
<p>Alice lets out a slow moan as his palm teases her entrance, and then that moan becomes a slight noise of pain as his hand reaches her butt cheek with a hard impact that rings in her ears. Alice squirms, and his hand raises again.</p>
<p>"Do count them, naughty little wife," he murmurs, and with a shaky voice, Alice obeys him.</p>
<p>His hands lave her bottom burning, and eventually, tears start welling in her eyes and then they collect onto her face and fall freely. She shivers and cries as he gently rubs her reddened backside, and then he helps her up again. She's sniffling as he wraps his arms around her, and she presses her head tightly against him and weeps even though there is no reason to weep, even though her bottom does not hurt quite that badly.</p>
<p>He hushes her easily and holds her calmly. Eventually, she runs out of tears, and then she feels like her head is full of cotton. He pulls her onto her feet and then he leads her into the bedroom. Alice squirms underneath the covers without even taking off her clothes, and he bustles around for a moment.</p>
<p>Eventually, he sits down with her brushes her hair open. Alice looks dazedly at her husband.</p>
<p>"Well?" he asks lightly. Alice blinks. "Is it truly something you cannot share with me, or was that just playing?"</p>
<p>Alice breathes slowly and sniffles. He gives her a handkerchief which she uses to dapple the tears out of her eyes and blow her nose into. Alice breathes slowly as his hands move through her hair and open the knots and then ease the tension in her neck.</p>
<p>She feels tired to the bone, and she doesn't even know why she feels quite like that. She thinks about the way he held her so easily like she was a misbehaving child, how easily he overtook her with his power and forced her over his knee, and she thinks about the way his hands feel gentle now even though they are also red from spanking her flesh so tightly.</p>
<p>"It's Anne's secret to tell," Alice murmurs as he continues braiding her hair. He hums and doesn't argue.</p>
<p>Alice can still guess that this isn't over, but for now, he accepts that she will keep her mouth shut.</p>
<hr/>
<p>The days after her sister and her brother-in-law leave are confusing. He keeps closer to her side, almost constantly in her vicinity, and Alice wonders if he is guarding her.</p>
<p>The red of her bottom turns into yellow and green and brown. He likes to kiss those bruises and sometimes his teeth linger on that skin, and during those moments Alice shivers involuntarily and wonders whether he will bite through her skin like he did the first time they laid together.</p>
<p>It's so strange to spend so much time with him when they usually only meet for a few hours a day, and those hours are typically strictly spent exploring each other's body. Alice has still not seen him completely nude. Somehow, he always seems to be able to get her undressed before she has the chance to divest him of his clothes, and that makes her wonder if that is not by some true purpose. It would be like him to hide something like that from her, but for what reason, that is the question.</p>
<p>Eventually, there comes a breakfast when he looks at her in a way that makes her stomach lurch again.</p>
<p>"I think you should write your sisters again," he notes calmly enough as she is sipping on fresh apple juice. Alice looks at him curiously.</p>
<p>"Why would I do that?" she asks in confusion. He runs a finger on the rim of his full glass of red juice.</p>
<p>"I will have to leave in a few days again," he says calmly enough. "I think you would prefer the company rather than spend the time alone."</p>
<p>Alice bites her lip, but eventually, she nods. He is right, after all. The house feels far too empty without him and with Alice still never having seen any of the servants. It would be so easily to get hurt there, and to only be found days later by her husband? That is not a fate she wants to face.</p>
<p>She remains closed, though, thinking about it. She wonders if Rose or Marie could come, or if she should invite Anne again, but in the end, she does not know which she would prefer: a sister who does not quite understand what is going on in Alice's mind, or a sister who understands a little too much?</p>
<p>The last time they saw, Alice and Anne did not have that many moments to themselves. They did not have the chance to talk to one another properly, not like they are used to, and Alice knows that if they had, everything would come tumbling out of her mouth the moment they were left alone in one of these beautiful rooms in his house. She knows she would be talking Anne's ear off the moment her sister arrived, and in a way, Alice is slightly afraid of that. Would Anne understand what worries she has about this marriage? Could she understand the way Marcel likes to treat her, the gentleness and the firmness that exists in the man at the same time? Would she be willing to understand, or would she simply misunderstand everything and force Alice into trying to cover up the truth?</p>
<p>Alice wishes she knew the answer to that problem. She wishes she could just peek into the future for a short moment, just a quick little peek to  catch an idea of how Anne would see their relationship, but she does not have the gift of foresight, and thus all she can do is guess.</p>
<p>Alice sighs as she stares at the table.</p>
<p>"How long will you be gone this time?" she asks her husband. He hums thoughtfully and takes a sip of that dark, dark juice that even paints his lips red for a moment before he licks them clean.</p>
<p>"Perhaps a fortnight, perhaps a little more, perhaps a little less," he states. Alice wonders what that trip will entail, what exactly he is going to do on such a trip, but she doesn't ask for clarification. If he wanted to tell her, he would, and something about his demeanour makes Alice feel uneasy.</p>
<p>She does not want to ask him where he is going or who he will be meeting during that time. Suddenly, all she can think about is the way he disappeared and then appeared when she was at the door, when she pressed her cheek against it and then tried to imagine what he has hidden from her.</p>
<p>Alice has not thought about the door ever since he pulled her back into her bedroom, but now the thoughts about that door return with full force. Alice thinks about it, and eventually, she must shake her head.</p>
<p>She will have to just manage. She will just have to sate her curiosity some other way.</p>
<p>When he is ready, he will show that room to her, but before that is the case, Alice will not betray his trust.</p>
<hr/>
<p>He leaves with the letters Alice has written to her sisters, and she kisses him goodbye on that morning. He smiles and promises to be back sooner than she'll believe, and Alice watches as he climbs on the coach and then disappears out of the gates of their house.</p>
<p>The house looms tall and magnificent behind her, and for once, Alice turns around and looks at it critically. She looks at all those windows, the carefully created facade, everything in it. The house is beautiful, but somehow it is a little too perfect. Nothing is out of place; everything is carefully put together as if there was no free will to be had in that house.</p>
<p>Something in the placement of those windows feels a little too malicious, and Alice cannot help but shiver as she looks up at the second floor and then decides to head in before her thoughts betray her any more than that.</p>
<p>Inside, she stops in the foyer and stares at the door that will lead to the stairs to the basement, and with a shiver, she walks over to it.</p>
<p>The key slides in easily, much too easily, and Alice locks the door. Before she can think about it any longer, she runs upstairs two steps at a time, and then she rushes through the rooms until she reaches her husband's rooms. The door is never locked. She slips in easily and looks at the comfortable rooms, and then she pulls the key to the cellar off the keyring and slips it into one of his coat's pockets, and then she takes the key to that forbidden room and puts it under his pillow.</p>
<p>She slips out of the room and locks it behind her. At least this way, she won't be too tempted, she wishes. At least this way, if the urge takes over her, she will have to remember the way her husband looked at her, will have to think about him instead of only that horrible curiosity that still burns inside of her.</p>
<p>Alice heads downstairs and tries to drown her own thoughts with a song she hums under her breath, and she hopes someone will come to keep her company before she goes insane.</p>
<hr/>
<p>It's four days later when a carriage appears on the driveway, and Alice quickly straightens out her clothes before she steps to the door and opens it just as the carriage is stopped in front of the main doors to the house.</p>
<p>"Rose! Marie!" she greets in excitement, and her sisters and brothers-in-law stumble out of the carriage with their many children in tow.</p>
<p>Their visit is more than welcome. Each morning Alice has been increasingly tempted to slip into Marcel's rooms and take the keys and enter the cellar, but so far, she has managed to avoid giving into that temptation. She thinks that she would just like to see the door, that she would just like to confirm that it is still down there, but she also knows the way it loomed over her and called her closer.</p>
<p>With Rose and Marie and their families in the house, the temptation of that door is much lesser. Alice entertains them and gives them a tour of the house, and they do not even seem to realise that she leaves something unseen. There are so many rooms, and how could they know of keys that are not in the keyring?</p>
<p>The children want to play outside, and the adults dutifully follow them and enjoy the summer breeze while sipping on juice and enjoying delicacies found in the kitchen.</p>
<p>"The house is quite large," Marie's husband muses. "How many members of staff do you have?"</p>
<p>Alice swallows a mouthful of juice and then she looks back at the house.</p>
<p>"I'm not certain," she says. "I've never seen them."</p>
<p>The others seem to be in disbelief. Alice looks down at her lap and bites her lip.</p>
<p>"How can you not know how many staff members you have in your own house?" they ask from her and from one another. "How can you not know who the people who live in your house are called?"</p>
<p>They look like they no longer know her, and Alice must swallow thickly.</p>
<p>"Whoever they are, I don't think they want to be seen," she says quietly. "I've been trying to catch them ever since I came here, but not once have I ever seen anyone even passing me in the corridors or heard someone bustling in a nearby room. It's as if there was no staff at all, yet someone still cooks and cleans and keeps the house respectable. I don't even know how many people one would need to keep this house in this condition, or the gardens."</p>
<p>She looks down at her lap, and then she sees her hands shaking. She has never said it aloud.</p>
<p>She has not asked about the missing servants from Marcel. Somehow, she has known that there is something strange in that whole thing, that she must be careful not to say anything too damning.</p>
<p>Alice thinks about the way she has traversed the hallways of this house, how she has wandered from room to room, how she has seen each nook and cranny, measured the house with her steps and come to the conclusion that there are not even any hidden rooms, but still she knows that someone moves there unseen. It is unnerving. She wishes she could even meet the servants at some point, because now, she feels like her house is haunted and she can do nothing to the fact.</p>
<p>Her family remains still troubled by how little Alice knows about the people who take care of the house, but eventually, they decide to let the matter be and move on to some topics that are less troubling. Alice participates in the conversation and tries to be happy because she now has company, but it is hard to be happy when suddenly she feels so horribly lonely.</p>
<p>She misses Marcel, she realises. She misses her husband, and she sighs as she looks over into the gardens.</p>
<p>He said he would be gone for a fortnight, perhaps a little less, perhaps a little more. Alice wishes he was back as soon as possible.</p>
<p>She wishes Marcel would come back before her sisters have to leave with their families and she is back to being alone in that large house with only her keys for company and that large door in the cellar looming in all of her dreams like a ghost that remains in the corner of one's eye.</p>
<hr/>
<p>Her sisters and brothers-in-law are quick to enjoy the comforts the house has to offer. They forget all about the lack of visible servants, instead complimenting the breakfast that is set ready each day for them all and how nice the rooms are kept, and they joke and laugh and make merry, and the children play together and enjoy their time away from the city.</p>
<p>But sooner than she would like, the visit ends. It has been two days shy of a fortnight when her sisters gather their children and husbands, and then they hug tightly and promise to write one another and say how much they have missed the countryside but how they still prefer living in the city, and then they wave until the carriage is so far away that nothing can be seen anymore.</p>
<p>Alice sits miserably on the stairs of her house, and her shoulders slump with the weight of loneliness. She wishes she could turn back time and enjoy the company of her sisters a little more, how she could push aside those longing thoughts of Anne's company and the irritation of Marie and Rose's materialistic minds, but that is too late now. Now, she is all alone by herself again, and there is nothing to change that fact anymore.</p>
<p>She sits on the stairs long enough to have her bottom stiff with the coldness of the stones when she gets up, and then she takes in a big breath and enters the house again.</p>
<p>Immediately, she can feel the strength of the pull towards the cellar. While there were others in the house, she could not listen to it, but all alone, she feels it with every fibre of her soul. Alice shivers involuntarily, and something echoes in her ear, like whispers in a large cathedral.</p>
<p>Alice heads upstairs into her own room, and she sits at the dressing table and brushes her hair, and eventually, she puts even the brush down.</p>
<p>In the mirror, there is a woman dressed in beautiful clothes with shiny hair and a youthful blush on her face. She looks happy with life, she looks content, and something in her eyes burns even though she is surrounded by beautiful things. Alice looks at the curve of her eyelashes, at the roundness of her red cheeks, at the small partition between her pink lips, and then she looks down at the dressing table.</p>
<p>She stares at the jewels for a long moment, and for the first time ever, she wonders where they all came from. The styles are so different to one another, as if they were a mismatched collection of different women's tastes, as if they had been put together haphazardly and without any deeper thought put into the matter. Some look only a few years old, while others seem ancient. Alice looks at them all and she thinks about them, and she studies them carefully, and her head feels dizzy.</p>
<p>How come Marcel has such a collection of jewellery ready for her to use?</p>
<p>Her eyes strain towards the wardrobe. She opens the doors, and then she looks at all those pretty dresses with a critical eye.</p>
<p>Some of them are far out of style, as if someone had hanged them in the closet years ago and simply forgotten all about them. Alice has only heard about those styles, and the fabrics feel oddly sturdy to her fingers as she studies the seams and carefully looks over the fabrics. Some of the dresses are far too big for her, some a little too small, but the closet is full of dresses.</p>
<p>Why would he have given her all these dresses? Why would he have collected such a mismatched collection of dresses and jewellery for his wife?</p>
<p>Alice stares at the contents of the closet, and she feels like she is almost about to understand something important when hands cover her eyes and a breath lowers in her neck.</p>
<p>"Hello, darling wife," he murmurs against her nick and nibbles on her ear, and she shivers underneath his administrations. "Were you wondering what to wear to best surprise your husband?"</p>
<p>Alice does not have time to answer when he already turns her around and kisses her with such intense burning that it makes her stomach flip as if she was falling from a great height. His hands are already intent on removing all her clothes, and there is nothing to stop him.</p>
<p>"Silly wife," he murmurs as if he was chastising her. "You already know I like you best completely naked in front of me."</p>
<p>Alice cannot help but shiver as he rips the dress in his haste to get it off her. She tries to help him, but his hands are far nimbler than hers.</p>
<p>They have not seen each other for almost two weeks, and already she can feel the intent of his kisses. She knows how this will end.</p>
<p>Her clothes fall on the floor, and he presses her tightly against the wall and then he kisses her as he pulls her tightly against his body. His hands struggle a moment with his own buttons, and then he lifts her up against the wall and slams into her body.</p>
<p>There is nothing gentle in the way he fucks her against her bedroom wall, her completely naked in his grasp, him only with his trousers unbuttoned. He is hurried as if he had been waiting for this for the whole time he was away, and Alice can simply moan as his fingers roughly handle her and play with her body. He does not seem too worried whether she'll enjoy this meeting of theirs, too intent on chasing his own pleasure, but Alice can already feel pleasure curling up in her stomach.</p>
<p>He kisses her again and again and again, and his rhythm becomes uneven when her body gives up the pretence of her being prim and proper, and she moans in desperation as he pulls pleasure out of her body just to make him also reach his peak.</p>
<p>His forehead feels sweaty as he shivers and presses deep into her and then stays there. Their breath mingles and he has his face pressed against her neck, and her arms feel like they have completely locked around his shoulders and now refuse to let go of him.</p>
<p>"Hello Marcel," she manages to say eventually. "Did you miss me?"</p>
<p>He chuckles at her attempt at humour, and then he looks at her right in the eye as he slips out of her. Her mouth opens a little at the feeling of his passion spilling onto her thigh, and she blushes as his eyes burn with intensity.</p>
<p>He kisses her one more time, and she lowers her eyes and shivers as his hands guide her towards the bed.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. Five</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>There are ghosts in the house, she thinks. Alice walks the halls, and in the corner of her eye, she sees something shifting, some slight trickle of light that does not come from the windows.</p>
<p>She says nothing to Marcel. She watches and listens, and she hears haunted steps going down the stairs into the basement and never coming up, and she dreams of the door again, that one door that is forbidden from her, that one door she must never ever open.</p>
<p>She dreams of that door and she wakes up in cold sweat until Marcel's strength wraps tightly around her and manages to calm her body enough for her to relax.</p>
<p>If he holds onto her as tightly, she thinks, she won't be able to walk down the stairs to that door, she won't be able to leave this bed and him. If he holds on to her like this, maybe those dreams will stop haunting her.</p>
<p>They do not.</p>
<hr/>
<p>Alice bites her lip when he yet again tells her that he must go for a while. He notices her hesitation.</p>
<p>"Could you ask your sisters here again, to be your companionship, my good little wife?" he asks gently and caresses her cheek. Alice shivers a little.</p>
<p>"I don't think they'll be able to come so soon," she murmurs. "Marie and Rose already spent such a long time here, but I can always ask Anne."</p>
<p>Marcel nods and leaves her to it.</p>
<p>Anne's letter comes in the mail before he leaves. Alice rips it open and reads it hurriedly, and she lets out a small sigh of relief.</p>
<p>Anne and Thomas arrive the morning that Marcel leaves. Their carriages pass each other by. Alice is glad for it. She doesn't know what she would have done had her sister not arrived so promptly.</p>
<p>She's afraid of where she would have ended up.</p>
<p>Anne hugs her, but then her sister frowns. Thomas is quick to take their child inside and give them a moment to talk, and slowly, they walk over to the gardens.</p>
<p>"You look pale," Anne says. "Is something the matter?"</p>
<p>They disappear into the hedge maze. It will provide them with some privacy Thomas, but it does not provide them privacy from the looming of that tall house Alice calls her home nowadays. Its windows always seem to be a little too dark for comfort. They are always so dark, and someone could easily hide in them and watch them.</p>
<p>Alice feels like something is constantly watching her when she is in the house.</p>
<p>"I think this house is haunted," she says and then pauses suddenly.</p>
<p>Anne looks a little wary. Alice gives her sister a worried glance.</p>
<p>"I found this," Anne says eventually and pulls a newspaper article from her pocket. It's old and creased, but Alice quickly straightens it out and reads the faded words on that yellowed paper.</p>
<p>"He had a wife before you," Anne says unnecessarily when Alice keeps staring at that news article. "Did you know that?"</p>
<p>Alice thinks about those dresses that hang in the closet and the beautiful room her husband has given her, and she thinks of the way Marcel always guides the conversation away from himself. She thinks about how little she truly knows her husband.</p>
<p>She thinks about those trips of his, and she wonders where he is even now.</p>
<p>"Do you know what happened to her?" Alice asks eventually. Anne looks wary. Her eyes dart all around, and she glances unwillingly towards the house.</p>
<p>"I've heard rumours," Anne says quietly. "They say that his previous wife died, but not what she died of. All anyone seems to know is that she died here."</p>
<p>Alice looks at that wedding announcement again.</p>
<p>"Ten years to the date since we wed," she says numbly.</p>
<p>Is she nothing but a replacement for a wife that he has lost?</p>
<hr/>
<p>Alice is quiet and downtrodden, and no matter how hard Anne and Thomas and their child try to cheer her up, it's difficult to find joy again. Eventually, Alice forces herself to be happy again, at least in front of them.</p>
<p>They do not leave before Marcel returns home, and he returns as suddenly as the two times before.</p>
<p>When Anne hugs him goodbye and orders Alice to write them more, Marcel glances in Alice's direction with those dark eyes of his.</p>
<p>"They are having a child, then," he states as their carriage pulls away. Alice nods.</p>
<p>"A child," she confirms, and then she hesitates a little. "They asked me to become the godmother."</p>
<p>Marcel looks thoughtful.</p>
<p>"You are not yet a mother yourself," he states. Alice bites her lip and nods again. His arm is already snaking around her waist. "Though not for a lack of trying."</p>
<p>That devilish glint is back in his eyes, and he so easily pulls Alice up into that bedroom that she no longer is certain to be just hers.</p>
<hr/>
<p>When he is there, the ghosts are more present than before. Alice listens to those eerie footsteps that end in the cellar, and sometimes she swears she can hear a door opening.</p>
<p>She knows which door it is that opens. She knows it with as much certainty as she knows that his hair is not just dark, but it is tinted with blue.</p>
<p>There are things she cannot explain in that house, things that leave her frightened. He never eats when he is with her, and his drinks are always dark red, as dark as blood is. Alice's eyes stray increasingly often towards his glass, but she does not say anything. She doesn't dare to.</p>
<p>She's afraid of what he might do if she acts anything unlike that good little wife of his that he is so fond of.</p>
<p>Again, there comes a day when he says he is leaving. Summer is gone and autumn is there. The honeymoon is over. Now that the fields are heavy with fruits and wheat, Alice knows there will be no sister to keep her company. They are all too busy with their own lives.</p>
<p>They do not know how Alice fears.</p>
<p>But he sees it in the way that she clings to his body. He sees it in the way that she shivers as he stands in the foyer, and Alice holds onto him so tightly her arms shake.</p>
<p>"I'll be back sooner than you think," he murmurs onto the crown of her head.</p>
<p>"Please don't leave me," she whispers in a shaky voice.</p>
<p>"I must," he says, and much too easily he pulls himself apart from her.</p>
<p>Alice shivers on the front steps as his carriage disappears, and she feels the house already singing a haunting, mocking tune. She feels the call from deep within its depths.</p>
<p>She is not a strong woman, but just a girl, and so she runs, runs deep into the hedge maze, and she gets lost and runs and loses herself even more until there is nothing left to find.</p>
<hr/>
<p>Even running is not enough. The hem of her dress is torn, and her shoes caked in mud when she eventually returns to the house in defeat, and she stands in front of the door with a heavy heart and tears burning in her throat.</p>
<p>The door opens like a dark, hungry mouth. Alice swallows thickly, and for a moment she teeters on the edge between outside and inside, but then her feet lead her in.</p>
<p>The door closes behind her with a heavy thud. In the darkness of the foyer, she almost feels like she has been swallowed completely. There is no source of light, but she has learned this house too well already. She knows the forbidden steps to the basement door, and it's too easy to walk over to that door and to open and to slip inside.</p>
<p>The stairs curl on themselves as if they were leading her straight down to hell. They feel longer in this darkness, somehow far more sinister than ever before, and Alice is more frightened than she has ever been in her entire life as she finally comes to the end.</p>
<p>There is slight fumbling as she searches for the candle and matches that she knows reside at the bottom steps, and slowly, she lights the wick. The faint light makes the shadows seem deeper. They are almost deep enough to drown into, inky black and all-encompassing. Alice blinks slowly, and then, her feet take the role of the main character. She is a viewer in her own body.</p>
<p>The cellar is endless, but even eternities have a limit, and this eternity's limit is the forbidden door that has been there always, that Alice had forgotten but which she now stares with a heart that stutters like a canary before it chokes inside the mine.</p>
<p>The key in her pocket is as heavy as it has always been. Alice pulls it out with a shaking hand, and she looks at it. There is nothing in that key to mark it as dissimilar to any other key in the house. It is just a brass key, another brass key in a house where there are a thousand similar ones, but this key is always cold to the touch.</p>
<p>It slips into the lock far too easily. Alice shivers as the lock clicks open, and then she blows out the candle.</p>
<p>The darkness is almost comforting as she stands there, the door finally open, and she closes her eyes. Her eyes are blind like this, but she can still feel other things.</p>
<p>The scent that comes from the room is somehow damp and musty. There is something in it that feels oddly familiar, but Alice does not know what it reminds her of. It is a recognisable scent, something that cannot be forgotten about. It is a scent one smells only once in their life, but which one remembers for the rest of their years.</p>
<p>The air in the room is not any different than the air in the corridor. Alice breathes slowly and she shakes a little, and then she straightens out her back.</p>
<p>The door feels cool underneath her fingers. Alice pulls it back closed, and then she locks the door, blind in the darkness.</p>
<p>Her hands shake horribly as she relights the candle. She pulls the key out of the lock, and then she turns her back on the door.</p>
<p>There is something in it that feels like it is watching her back, as if something inside that room was trying to grasp for her, but Alice does not open the door again. She walks all the way back upstairs, and she forgets all about the key that rests so heavy in her pocket.</p>
<hr/>
<p>Her days are filled with moments when she feels like the ghosts of the house are closer than ever before. Sometimes Alice thinks she sees a skirt trailing next to her own skirt, a hem that is like those dresses that are in the upstairs closet, but those visions always disappear so quickly.</p>
<p>Alice knows better than to look at it any closer than that. She knows better than to think that those ghosts want her in that house, and that is why she does her best to forget them. It is better that way, after all. It's much safer to forget they have ever existed at all.</p>
<p>She waits for Marcel's return like a dutiful wife, and she works on embroidery and knitting and whatever she can do to occupy her hands, but her mind wanders through the rooms of the house as if it was a gallery of pictures.</p>
<p>She knows these rooms so well already, knows them all, and when she walks through them each evening before climbing into bed, she thinks she can spot some changes. Things move, not by much, but just enough that it feels like someone is moving them.</p>
<p>It must be the ghosts, Alice thinks and starts knitting another baby bonnet for her sister's unborn child.</p>
<hr/>
<p>Marcel returns on a rainy day. There is no carriage that brings him to the door of the house. Instead, he just appears in the parlour next to Alice. One moment she is looking down on her work and counting her stitches, and the next he is sitting next to the fireplace and studying her.</p>
<p>"Were you good while I was gone?" he asks her. Alice pulls the key out of her pocket like the dutiful wife she is. He studies it with a slight frown.</p>
<p>"I did open the door," she admits while biting her lip. "But I blew the candle out beforehand. I did not see what was inside."</p>
<p>He studies her eyes carefully and finds only the truth in them. His face is still gloomy.</p>
<p>"Naughty little wife," he murmurs and looks at her with those dark eyes.</p>
<p>Alice swallows thickly as she reads the command present on his face. She leaves her knitting on the chair where she had been sitting comfortably, and she crosses the room to be next to her husband. His eyes hold her tightly within her place as she lowers herself slowly onto his lap and lies against the arms of the chair.</p>
<p>His hands gather her skirts and they rub at her delicate skin, and she shivers a little.</p>
<p>"Such a naughty little wife I have, but a clever wife after all," he murmurs and his hand slaps harshly against her skin. A gasp escapes her mouth.</p>
<p>His other hand comes to caress her, and Alice cannot quite stop the moan that escapes her lips. He chuckles and rubs her again, and the next spank makes her cry out.</p>
<p>He spanks her bottom until it is sore, and her eyes are all watery, and until she is twitching in pleasure and making small, keen noises. Eventually, his harsh hand stops and holds her tightly against his lap. Marcel laughs darkly as he rubs her into completion, and then she tries to catch her breath but does not get the chance to do so before he pulls her up.</p>
<p>Marcel wipes away her tears slowly, and Alice shivers. Her bottom is aching, but he holds her like that, does not allow her to get up and to ease that hurt.</p>
<p>"Clever little Alice," he murmurs and kisses her so softly it makes her think that he is giving her a compliment.</p>
<p>She does not understand why her heart aches like that, but he pulls her against his shoulder, and she leans her head onto his shoulder, and for a moment, they simply sit like that in the warmth of the fire.</p>
<p>When she is too sleepy to get up, he carries her upstairs and undresses her and crawls into bed with her. Alice curls up against his body, and she tries to stifle the sobs that dare to try and escape her lips.</p>
<hr/>
<p>He is back in the house, and the ghosts disappear when he is there. Alice listens for them, walks through the rooms, but when he is there, they dare not enter their lives.</p>
<p>Alice wonders why they would be afraid of him.</p>
<p>He notices how she keeps listening to something during an evening when everything is supposed to be well, but he does not move from his chair. He simply looks at her expectantly and frowns a little.</p>
<p>"I'm trying to hear the ghosts," Alice says without even noticing it. His frown deepens even more.</p>
<p>"There are no ghosts in this house, Alice," he tells her in a voice that does not leave any room for arguing.</p>
<p>Alice wishes she could tell him of what the house is like when he is gone, how it seems to get under her skin, how the ghosts walk the corridors, how he does not notice them, but how ever could she do that when he is so insistent on not believing in them? How could she make him believe her, when he does not witness the things she does, when he does not hear steps heading towards the cellar, when he does not feel their presence?</p>
<p>Alice looks at her lap and remains mute, wishing she had someone to tell about this, but she knows they would all think of her as mad.</p>
<hr/>
<p>Alice starts keeping track of the time he is gone. She writes the dates down, and she looks at the slowly emerging pattern.</p>
<p>She thinks about the time before they were married, their time of engagement, and she has great difficulty to remember what life used to be like back then.</p>
<p>She looks at the dates, and slowly, her hands take up the sheet of paper and rip it in half. Her mouth opens into a voiceless scream as her body is taken over by some force, and she walks over to the roaring fireplace.</p>
<p>The two strips of paper are discarded into the fire, and they disappear as if they had never existed at all. Alice stares at them in mute horror, and once her body is hers again, she tries to reach into the fire to get those papers back, but all she manages is a painful burn on her hand.</p>
<p>She cradles her arm against her body and watches helplessly as the dates burn, and with the dates, the memories of the times he was gone from the house.</p>
<p>Alice falls to her knees and feels like crying, but no tears come.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0006"><h2>6. Six</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The next time he is away, the ghosts speak to her. Their voices are faint, like whispers from the other end of a long corridor. Usually they are so far away that Alice can barely hear them, but alone at night, lying in bed and staring at the canopy, she sometimes hears words that are spoken in fear and in a hurry, words that are spoken only for her.</p><p><em>Run</em>, the voices tell her. <em>Run far away from this house. Run like you have never run before, run like your life depended on it</em>.</p><p><em>Who are you? </em>Alice wants to ask them. <em>Why do you say these things to me? Why are you haunting this house?</em></p><p>But she never says anything. What if she is inviting them in by speaking to them? What if she will give them some power over her if she answers their frantic begging? What if these are malevolent spirits, desperate to drive her away from the house?</p><p>Alice listens to their voices in the loneliness of the house, and she listens to the footsteps that end in the cellar and never come back up, and she feels sick to her stomach, but there is nothing she can do.</p><hr/><p>In the mornings, it is easier to tolerate. In the mornings, she manages to convince herself that there are no ghosts in this house, that this is just a regular house with a thousand and one doors. She manages to tell herself all these things in the gentle sunlight of mornings when those nightmares seem so far away.</p><p>Alice tries to think of other things, tries to remember what her old house used to be like, but every memory of hers is dimmed by the presence of that forbidden room and the door that looms in her thoughts all the time.</p><hr/><p>That time, she does not go downstairs, and he seems pleased by the fact. They have dinner together, and he watches as she eats.</p><p>Alice stares at the meat on her plate, and then she suddenly looks up at him.</p><p>"Do you think we are going to have children soon?" she asks. He hums thoughtfully.</p><p>"It may take its time, Alice," he tells her gently. "Perhaps after a year and a day of marriage you shall fall pregnant."</p><p>That is an odd thing to say, Alice thinks quietly to herself. They have been married for half a year now. She wonders why a year and a day, what makes that number so magical, what exactly makes it so important to him, but she does not ask him that. Instead, she lets the knife slice the meat, and she eats it silently.</p><p>He takes her upstairs. Instead of taking off her clothes, he sits her down on the bed, and then he rubs her neck gently. It's strange. Usually his touch is a mix of pain and pleasure. He is unusually soft this night, unusually gentle with her.</p><p>Is there a reason for it, or is this just one of those things Alice will never truly get to understand herself?</p><p>"Did you think about going downstairs this time?" he asks her. Alice takes in a small breath. It's pointless to lie.</p><p>"I did," she murmurs. "The door keeps haunting my thoughts."</p><p>"You have been such a good wife so far," he tells her. "Please, please do not betray my trust."</p><p>He sounds tired as he says that. Alice listens to the echo of his words, but she does not comment upon it. Eventually, his voice returns and fills the room anew.</p><p>"One day, I will show you that room," he murmurs silently. "One day, I will open the door with you, and then I will show you what is inside there, and you will understand everything, but you must trust me until that day, Alice."</p><p>Alice nods silently and knows that this is important. Why would he keep that room a secret if he wants her to know what is inside? Why would he not show it to her if it is so important for him?</p><p>There is something she does not understand in all of this, something strange and something wicked, but Alice knows how dangerous it can be to ask about matters she does not understand. She knows that there is something dark in this house, something she does not understand.</p><p>He has had a wife before her, a wife he has not mentioned with a single word, wife whose clothes and jewellery and rooms Alice has been given as a gift. There are so many secrets in this house, and there is no telling how many more Alice will come across before he even answers one of them, but eventually, something must change. Their life cannot go on like this eternally. There must be something they can do to trust each other.</p><p>"Could I take off your clothes?" she asks in a small voice. The hands that have been rubbing at her back still.</p><p>"Why?" is the answer. Alice bites her lip.</p><p>"You've seen all of me, but I still don't really know what you look like," she says with a burning face. She moves a little, and then she looks at his face.</p><p>He looks tired.</p><p>"I don't think that is possible, Alice," he says and caresses her cheek. "I am not... comfortable with that."</p><p>Alice nods her head and accepts the fact as it is presented, but that does not stop her from still wanting to see him completely in front of her.</p><p>He kisses her neck, and she curls up against his form.</p><p>It's nice to just lie with him, for a change, nice to just be there with him and let him pet her hair even though there are so many other things they could be doing.</p><p>He kisses the top of her head and she snuggles closer to his chest, and Alice thinks she can almost hear the heart in his chest beating a steady rhythm, but only almost.</p><hr/><p>Alice gets a letter one day, and when her hand touches it, a dark feeling passes over her. She rips the letter open, and then she reads the contents with hungry eyes.</p><p>A hand rises to cover her mouth, and the sob is half-aborted. Alice breathes heavily and swallows thickly, and Marcel touches her arm gently. He reads the letter over her shoulder.</p><p>"Anne and the child are dead," Alice says in a shaking voice even though Marcel can see it as well.</p><p>"Poor Thomas," he murmurs quietly and takes Alice into an embrace before the tears manage to burst through completely. His hand rubs her shoulders gently and he holds her tight within his arms, so hidden from the world.</p><p>It takes Alice a long while to stop crying. He holds her for as long as she needs it, and then, he gently guides her into their comfortable sitting room and pours her a glass of whiskey. Alice accepts it with shaking hands.</p><p>It's not suitable for her to drink, not this early in the morning, but she swallows the whiskey in two gulps and coughs a little because of the burn she is unaccustomed to. Marcel is on his knees in front of her, looking at her with those dark eyes of his, the shade of his beard and hair once again tinting towards blue because of the cloudy weather.</p><p>"Is that how she died?" Alice asks numbly. "Giving birth?"</p><p>"Who, Alice?" he looks into her eyes.</p><p>"Your wife," she says, her tongue stiff with alcohol and crying. "The one you had before me."</p><p>His eyes gain darkness as he sighs, and he shakes his head.</p><p>"No, she didn't die in childbirth," he murmurs quietly and then remains quiet for a long moment. He takes hold of her hands and runs his thumb down the back of her hands. "I didn't realise you knew about her."</p><p>Alice swallows thickly.</p><p>"Anne showed me the marriage announcement," she says and wants to cry all anew as she thinks about her sister. "I think someone must have showed it to her, and then she showed it to me."</p><p>Marcel is studying her with those dark eyes of his. It's almost uncomfortable.</p><p>"You didn't say anything," he eventually states. Alice shakes her head mutely.</p><p>"No, I didn't."</p><p>He keeps staring at her in that unnerving way, but he does not say anything, not quite yet. There is something in his eyes that makes her wonder what he must be thinking about, but eventually, that look disappears. He just looks at her with those dark eyes of his and keeps holding her hands, and then, he sighs and slowly gets up from his knees and sits down next to her on the loveseat.</p><p>Alice curls up against his body. She can already feel a headache pounding behind her eyes, and that makes her close them.</p><p>The ghosts are whispering again. <em>Do not trust him</em>, they say in their haunting voices. <em>Do not stay here any longer than necessary. Run away, Alice, run away. Run!</em></p><p>Their voices are somehow even more worried than before, and Alice shivers as she opens her eyes. The voices disappear when she sees Marcel again.</p><p>She wonders why they have started to talk to her while he is there. She wonders what must have changed, why they are now so insistent on trying to keep her away from him, and she shivers involuntarily.</p><p>He holds her and he kisses her head, and Alice curls up tighter against him, wanting to feel loved.</p><hr/><p>Autumn storms arrive and try to blow the house down. Alice keeps to its confines, watching as the storms roll over the hills and over their lands, and she longs for summer and its warmth as well as the light that used to keep everything so clear and all her bad dreams and the hauntings at bay.</p><p>Now it is almost winter, and the ghosts know it better than anyone else. They whisper in her dreams, and their steps always go down, down, down into the basement.</p><p>It feels like they are taunting her, like the door is playing with her. Alice sleeps restlessly if Marcel does not sleep with her, and he rarely does it if she doesn't ask, and she is too afraid to ask for it too often.</p><p>He looks at the growing bags underneath her eyes during breakfast when Alice sips on hot tea and he sips on that dark, dark red liquid of his, but he does not say anything. He just studies her and the weariness growing on her face, and he remains still and silent just like she does.</p><p>Alice knows that soon again, he will leave. He always leaves around this time, always leaves her for a week or two or maybe three, always arrives back home sooner than she thinks. He is going to leave, and Alice knows it, and she dreads the idea of being locked in the house when the storms are blowing wild outside and there is no place to run into.</p><p>He comes to bed with her, that night, and takes her with her hands tied to the bedposts and her eyes covered with a silk scarf, and his nails dig into her skin and draw blood, and he kisses each drop away. Afterwards Alice shivers in pleasure and pain, and he gently caresses each red line on her skin.</p><p>There are no more beads of blood, and not a single bead has reached the immaculate white sheets.</p><p>There is never blood on the sheets with him, not once, and the thought of it makes Alice dizzy with something she cannot quite explain.</p><p>"I have to leave soon," he says. The words make Alice swallow.</p><p>"How soon?" she asks with a shiver. He glances at her, and then he looks at the raging storm that is trying to pull the storm shutters open and break into those comfortable rooms where Alice resides in.</p><p>"I'll try to stay until the storms have ended," he says. Alice frowns.</p><p>"That's longer than you usually stay," she murmurs.</p><p>The grandfather clock ticks in the corner. Alice slowly brings the covers to her chin, and she looks at Marcel who is still sitting with his back leaning against the headboard.</p><p>"Will you be fine?"</p><p>He glances down at her. His face is already paler, more worn, and his haunting eyes stare out from eye sockets that are starting to deepen and to darken. The blue in his beard and his hair is more prominent than it is when he comes back to her. He is starting to look so strange, wild, and untamed, and it frightens Alice just as much as it excites her.</p><p>She does not know why she enjoys it so much when his control is starting to slip, why she likes this pain he gives her. She does not know why his hands turn so harsh so near the time when he is supposed to leave, and she does not ask. He is her husband. That should be more than enough for Alice.</p><p>That should be more than enough, but it isn't. No matter how hard she tries to convince herself, it isn't enough.</p><p>"We shall see," he murmurs.</p><p>In the morning, a familiar ache sets in her back and her stomach, and he feasts on her until she is begging for mercy. The darkness of his eyes eases a little.</p><p>Alice hopes it will be enough to stall him leaving before the winds break and the coldness of winter sets in with a frosty morning that is too still to break.</p><hr/><p>One night, she goes to sleep with him petting her hair with those long fingers whose nails are more like wild animal's claws, and next morning she wakes alone with a ring of keys on the pillow where his head should rest. Alice gets up slowly, and she puts on one of the dresses that she knows his other wife must have worn, and she ties the keys to a belt on her waist.</p><p>The house is still and quiet just like the morning outside. Nothing moves, not even animals. Winter has come. The frost forms delicate flowers on the windowpanes, and in some rooms, her breath comes out as clouds. Alice walks around the house and locks rooms away from herself, and she looks at them with a heavy heart as she leaves them behind, knowing that she will not look at those rooms again before the summer is back.</p><p>Some rooms are only meant for summer, and those shouldn't be even thought about in winter months.</p><p>Once her journey through the house is done, she is left in the cellar with those keys of hers and the one that lays so heavy in her pocket. Alice rests her hand against the eternally cool wood of the door, and she closes her eyes and opens her ears to the ghosts.</p><p>In here, they are silent as if holding their breath. In here, it feels like they are with her behind this door, trying to listen to what is on the other side, eternally vexed by this damned door that is forbidden. In here, she feels them alongside her, in her place, their dresses and jewellery like hers, their faces different, their hairs braided and unbraided and carefully combed and wild.</p><p>Here they all are, her sisters and her, and Alice sits down on the cool stone floor of the corridor and stares at the door until the wick of her candle is all gone and she is plunged into darkness deeper than the night.</p><p>She closes her eyes then, and she feels them next to her, like sisters she has so missed, and they hold her hands and keep guard with her, eternally staring at the door.</p><hr/><p>She goes upstairs to sleep, but she always returns down there, to sit by the door, and she sits in that corridor on blankets she stole from other rooms. Sometimes there is light, but the candles burn out so quickly and plunge her into complete darkness. Most often, Alice does not have the strength to light another flame. Most often, she just remains there with the other women and feels their presence all around her.</p><p>They feel familiar by now. So many days and hours have they been there together, such a long time that it almost feels like they have always been together and will always remain together. Alice knows what their voices sounded like in life, how they must have thought, how their hands brushed against other people. She feels their longing and dreams and hopes they never got to fulfil, and the six women with her are always there, always with her.</p><p>When she walks upstairs, one of them walks with her. When she sleeps, another takes her place, and they keep switching. There is always someone with her, always a presence.</p><p>It is comforting to not be in that big house of his all alone, to have the comfort of her sisters.</p><p>It is comforting to know them, but she longs to see them, and she knows they are just on the other side of the door.</p><hr/><p>He appears just as suddenly as he left. One morning, Alice wakes up ready to head downstairs to sit with the ghosts that are her sisters, and he is there, in the bed with her. His eyes are no longer as dark, his face no longer that pale as it was, his face no longer gaunt and starved.</p><p>His beard is no longer blue. Alice's fingers touch it gently, and he allows the touch.</p><p>"You're back," she murmurs like a fool. It's difficult to believe even though logic tells her that he is there. He is back, just like he always is, without an announcement and sooner than she thought he'd be.</p><p>Alice does not know how long he has been awake. Her thoughts are too slow, too haunted by the hours spent sitting in the darkness. She's not sure how many days she was down there, staring at the door.</p><p>"You don't look like you've slept at all," he murmurs. "You kept twisting and turning all throughout the night."</p><p>He is quiet for a moment. He studies her face in detail.</p><p>"Is it the door?" he asks.</p><p>It's always the door, and he knows it just as well. Alice presses her face against his chest and tries to hear the beating of his heart, but there is nothing to be heard. He lets her find comfort in that even though he does not seem to care for it one way or another.</p><p>He does not care for many things one way or another. Sometimes Alice thinks that he does not care for anything at all.</p><p>"How many times more?" she asks in a haunted voice. "How many times more will you leave me before I am allowed to see what is behind that door?"</p><p>"Once more," he says in silence. "Just once more."</p><p>The words lead a shiver down her spine. Alice closes her eyes.</p><p>She hopes dearly it will not be the death of her.</p>
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<a name="section0007"><h2>7. Seven</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The winter is cold and cruel, and they burrow into their house. The rooms feel even emptier than ever before, but soon it will be spring and Alice can walk through the house and open all those locked doors again, open the doors to the rooms they are only allowed to live in during the summertime.</p><p>He stays with her. He seems to be keeping an eye on her. They are rarely apart now. He sits with her throughout her days, comes to her bed in the night. All this happens, and Alice knows it is because of the ghosts and the door.</p><p>He is staying with her longer than ever before. He rarely moves, and he seems to be conserving his energy. Alice fusses and tries to help him, but he simply looks at her and shakes his head and tells her to allow it.</p><p>The darkness disappears from his hair and beard, and his skin takes that same blue tint. Alice watches the transformation of him half in horror, half in fascination. The man in front of him has Marcel's face and his gestures, but his demeanour is completely changed.</p><p>The man in front of her has harsher hands than Marcel has, and Alice submits to his will the best she can.</p><p>But then spring comes, suddenly and with so much power that it feels like being slapped across the face.</p><p>"I must go now," he murmurs in that dark, raspy voice of his. Those dark eyes are nailed onto her. "You need to be strong, Alice."</p><p>"When will you be back?" she asks with a shiver in her voice. He holds her hands, the hands that have bruises across the wrists, the hands that he slid a knife's edge so many times across, the hands that have grasped onto him with all her power yet which have not been strong enough to even change his course, and he kisses them quietly.</p><p>"Sooner than you think," he says it like it is a promise. "I will always be back sooner than you think, my good little Alice."</p><p>Alice lays her eyes on the floor, and he kisses her forehead, and then, he is gone.</p><hr/><p>The ghosts find her in front of the door. Alice sits down where she sat before, and they wrap themselves all around her.</p><p><em>You are here again</em>, they murmur to her. <em>You did not run when you had the chance.</em></p><p>Alice stares at the door and thinks about Marcel, and she looks at her lap and the piece of embroidery she is trying to work on. The needle has pierced her skin more times than she can count by now. The thread is dyed red with her blood.</p><p>She continues her work on those bloodred petals of the flower, and she stares at the door as her ghostly sisters lean against her.</p><p>They whisper to her of the things they knew, of the words Marcel spoke to them while they were his wives. They tell her of their time, of them staring at this door like she is staring at it, and Alice listens to it mutely, her eyes straining towards the dark wood.</p><hr/><p>Day by day, she goes closer to the door. She starts at the end of the corridor, just where she can keep the door in her eyesight, but each day takes her closer. By the time she lays herself onto the cold floor, she is nearly touching it.</p><p>This is where their steps end, Alice knows. This is where they all stopped and pressed their ears against that old, darkened wood, and they listened while holding their breath. This is where some tried to peek in through the keyhole, while others put the key straight in.</p><p>This is where their candles and keys fell to the floor, and Alice presses her back against the door and sits there.</p><p>Tomorrow it will be a year since she married Marcel. Tomorrow will be the day when the door is going to force her to push the key inside its lock.</p><p>That night, Alice sits on the bed, and she ties her eyes and wishes it will be enough.</p><hr/><p>The door whispers in her dreams words she cannot remember once they have passed onto her mind. It lures her closer and closer, and Alice wakes up, feverish and cold at the same time.</p><p>She knows the house by now. She does not need her eyesight to get herself out of the room, to feel her way across the second floor down to the stairs, and then across the foyer onto the cellar stairs. She shivers and shakes, but her steps do not falter.</p><p>The key is in her hand, and it burns and hurts, but she cannot let go of it. Her tears are wetting that silk scarf that is pressing so tightly against her eyes that she is seeing stars, and her hands scrape against the cellar's uneven brick walls.</p><p>The door is in the end of the corridor, and even blind Alice knows what it must look like.</p><p>The key slips inside the hole so easily, and the door creaks open.</p><p>Alice breathes, and like she was possessed, she steps inside.</p><p>Something is wet underneath her foot, something is wetting her shiny silk socks, but she does not allow herself to take off the blind. Already, the air in the room is making her choke. It is pressing down her throat. The smell is overpowering. It is too thick and sweet, and Alice knows this smell, but she does not dare to move anymore.</p><p>She stands there, and her feet are cold and wet with something thick and slippery and smelling of copper, and she feels a hand on her shoulder.</p><p>He is back sooner than she thought.</p><p>"Oh Alice, clever Alice," he murmurs as she listens to his heart beating.</p><p>He pulls her away and takes her into his arms so easily, and Alice shivers with maniacal laughter and sobs.</p><p>He carries her all the way upstairs and puts her into a tub, and he peels the clothes off her skin but not the silk scarf that is still covering her eyes. Alice feels tired to the bone as he washes her feet gently and kisses her ankle, and he does not say anything.</p><p>Alice thinks about the smell of that room, and she feels like she is going to throw up, but she has not eaten for days. There is nothing that could come up. Even stomach acid is gone by now.</p><p>"Clever Alice," he murmurs as the water slowly drains away. With it disappears everything else, and Alice is left powerless and empty inside.</p><p>"Tie me to the bed," she begs of him. "It's still trying to get me."</p><p>He does not say anything as he pulls her out of the tub and carries her into the bedroom.</p><p>"You are running a fever, Alice," he murmurs as his hands travel across her body as if they owned it. "Right now, I don't think you could move even if you wanted."</p><p>Her muscles are still cramping from being locked to her place for so many hours. Alice shivers weakly and feels how his hands come to take off the blind.</p><p>His eyes are not dark, his skin a healthy colour, but his beard is blue.</p><p>It has always been blue, Alice realises. It never was anything else than blue.</p><p>"Tomorrow I'll show you the room," he murmurs with a smile. "You have been such a good and loyal wife, Alice."</p><p>Alice looks into his eyes, at the smile curling on his lips, and all she feels is empty inside, as if her heart had already stopped beating.</p><hr/><p>Morning always arrives. It must always arrive, but this time, it is too soon.</p><p>Alice opens her eyes, and she feels the emptiness of the house more than she has ever felt it before. Marcel is there, studying her with those dark eyes of his. He does not even look like he has pretended to sleep during the night.</p><p>Alice looks at him, and she knows that today is the day, that today she will finally see what is one the other side of that door, and she shivers.</p><p>He takes her and leads her downstairs. Breakfast is already set. Alice sets next to him, and she looks at the dark red liquid in his glass.</p><p>"Would you like some?" he offers to her. Alice bends her neck a little, curious, and then she nods.</p><p>It slides onto her lips so easily, and it tastes sweet and harsh at the same time. It is thick and warm and stains her lips and teeth, and she gives the cup back to him. He smiles and then he kisses her lips.</p><p>Her stomach does not seem to gain any nutrition from the food. It tastes like ashes, but she still dutifully eats what he has set in front of her.</p><p>Eventually, it is the time to go, and they both know it.</p><p>The stairs leading down into the cellar are familiar to her even in the darkness. He lights the candle that waits at the bottom of the staircase, and their eyes meet in the flickering light. His face is curiously absent of all emotion, but there is so much is his eyes now, so many things Alice has never studied before, never even caught a glimpse of.</p><p>He takes hold of her hand, and together, they walk to the door. The key is still in the lock.</p><p>There is a ting of red to it now. Alice looks at it mutely as he pushes the door open, and she looks past the threshold into the room.</p><p>The floors and walls and the ceiling are all red. Like in a dream, Alice steps inside and traces her footsteps into that pool of blood, and she stares at the ceiling in detached curiosity.</p><p>He closes the door behind them.</p><p>"Such a dutiful and good wife I have," he murmurs with a hint of pride in his voice. "Such a lovely little wife."</p><p>His gaze is on the back wall of the room, and Alice follows it with her own.</p><p>"Unlike your other wives," she murmurs.</p><p>The women she has known so intimately, the ghostly sisters whispering their warnings in her ears are all laid carefully on meat hooks. They rest there as if they were just asleep, but their faces are ashen and covered in horror and pain.</p><p>Alice walks over to them, and she slowly touches one of them.</p><p>All the blood in this room is from them, she now knows.</p><p>He lays a hand on her waist and then he leads her to a small alcove that is almost covered by the bodies of his previous wives, and in that alcove, Alice spies something that is far more valuable than all the other treasures he presents for everyone else in their house.</p><p>The heart rests on a soft pillow and beats a steady rhythm. Slowly, Marcel opens the buttons of his shirt and shows her the scar.</p><p>"Did it hurt?" Alice asks as she looks at his beautiful, red, living heart.</p><p>"Not nearly as bad as you'd think," he promises with a smile as he slides the knife in his hand over her shirt and cuts it open.</p><p>Alice closes her eyes and leans against her sisters and holds her breath tightly in her lungs as he carves her heart out of her chest and then carefully lays it next to his.</p><hr/><p>The city lights are brighter than Alice remembers them, and the dresses she chooses are modest yet more striking than any other dresses she has worn ever before. Marcel watches her with proud eyes and displays her to the other people who walk into balls, and he dances with her and whispers into her ear.</p><p>In the city, there is always blood to food to their hungry hearts, always blood to keep the rhythm steady and their life eternal.</p><p>Alice sometimes visits her sisters, and she is careful to avoid the mirrors. Rose and Marie never say anything.</p><p>Anne, dearest Anne, lays restfully in her tomb in a graveyard, in a tomb where she followed her child, and Thomas looks sorrowful when he speaks of her, but his heartache does not seem familiar to Alice.</p><p>Alice looks at her sister's grave and feels nothing, and she talks to her husband and feels nothing, and she gives beautiful gifts to her nieces and nephews and feels nothing.</p><p>Eventually, she and Marcel return home, and together they drink the blood that keeps them both alive, and together, they crawl into bed.</p><p>He knows how to make her feel, and she scratches at his skin and makes him shiver, and blood is their pleasure.</p><p>Sometimes, when the nights are still and the ghosts roam the rooms of the house, they walk downstairs together and look at their hearts beating on that pillow next to one another. He'll look into her eyes, and he'll gently caress her heart, and she will shiver and gasp and clutch at his body, and he will fuck her against the inside of the door, staining them both in blood.</p><p>The scar between her breasts matches the one that runs down his chest, and after she touches it, she'll ask for his permission with her eyes and walk over to his heart.</p><p>Her touch is barely there, but all the same, it makes him shiver.</p><p>She smiles quietly and takes his hand, and he hangs her up on a hook next to her sisters and has her all for himself, their hearts growing veins between one another, joining one another inescapably and eternally.</p>
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